The invention relates to a circuit arrangement for determining the position of a printer carriage in printer devices, wherein a keyboard control unit which is connected to a keyboard, following each input of characters which trigger a motion of the printer carriage, by means of the keyboard, produces first control signal, wherein the keyboard control unit contains a keyboard store in which a plurality of input characters can be stored and wherein a receiving control unit which is connected via a transmitting control unit to the keyboard control unit and to further input units, and via a trunk line to a remote subscriber, following the reception of each character which triggers a motion of the printer carriage, produces second control signals.
A circuit arrangement provided with a counter stage for determining the position of a printer carriage is conceivable, wherein the counter stage counts those characters which are input by means of a keyboard of the printer device and which advance the carriage. Following the actuation of a key on the keyboard which triggers a return of the carriage into a starting position, the counting stage is in each case set to a commencing value. In this case the count of the counter stage represents an image of the position of the printer carriage of the printer device. If, however, the printer device also prints characters which have been input with the aid of a read-out device or a code generator or characters received from a remote subscriber, although the position of the carriage changes, the count of the counter stage remains unchanged. Following a changeover from readout operation, code generator operation or receiving operation to keyboard operation, the count of the counter stage can only be synchronized with the position of the printer carriage by the input of a command, which triggers a return motion of the carriage, by means of the keyboard.
It would also be conceivable, in a printer device, to count the control signals which are fed to the printer carriage and which produce a motion of the carriage, by means of a counter stage. In this case the counter stage is advanced irrespectively of whether the characters are input by means of a keyboard, a readout device or a code generator, or are received from a remote subscriber. If, however, the keyboard is provided with a keyboard store in which a plurality of input characters can be stored, the characters can be input considerably more rapidly than they can be printed out. In these circumstances it is not possible to gather from the contents of the counter stage how many characters can be additionally input in the row to be currently printed in addition to those characters already printed out and those characters stored in the keyboard store.